Here’s one of the big reasons:
Someone in the AO-100 aviation section of the FAA, who was previously unaware of Armadillo, saw video of their NGLLC flights and decided that while Armadillo had proper permissions to fly above the airport, they did not have permission to fly from a federally subsidized airport. The AST section was surprised to learn about this issue. John says it will be worked out eventually but unfortunately in the meantime they cannot even do tethered tests because of the crazy ruling last year that labeled such tests as launches.
As a commenter notes, imagine if the government had required the Wright Brothers to get permission to fly from Kitty Hawk. It is a shame that the Armadillo team has to waste time and resources learning how to negotiate bureaucracies instead of how to develop safe and effective vehicles.
[Late afternoon update]
The problem seems to have been resolved.
One of the rationales for moving the Office of Commercial Space Transportation into the FAA was that the aviation and space functions could coordinate with each other better. Back when OCST reported directly to the Secretary of Transportation this sort of thing might have drawn a call from the Secretary’s office to the head of the FAA.
This is what happens when you loose sight of your values and goals, and only have rules to guide you.
I get so tired of hearing about faceless ‘crats. It’s time to put names and faces to these unelected people who get to decide so much of our business.
What’s the aerial version of “Shoot, shovel, and shut-up” for predatory “endangered” animals?
I get so tired of hearing about faceless ‘crats. It’s time to put names and faces to these unelected people who get to decide so much of our business.
You’re not going to hear names named by the people who have to deal with them, precisely because they have to deal with them.
JC reports boosted hop today, altitude still capped by paperwork.
Werent there some rules about GLOW and weight of the associated paperwork .. ?